See, America, see how easy it is? I just looked outside, society did not crumble, there are not zombie armies marauding the streets looking for caches of prepper beans and rice. A simple plant and a simple incident that could save America.

BullBearMS:Obama promised to not go after states that legalized pot. He has used every means at his disposal to break his word.

Settle down Bruce. You're a bigger drama queen than my five year old daughter. Used every means? Really? He loosened up for 2 years until the election began to loom, and post election he has rather conspicuously not sued to nullify the Washington and Colorado laws, as many drug warriors have been screaming for him to do.

Fact is he has NOT used every means at his disposal, not at the start of his term and not now. He's playing politics with it and doing it well - marijuana is entirely legal in WA and CO and his hands are completely clean of it. Fault him all he wants, but results count more than the wails of whiny biatches on the internet.

Now the Keystone pipeline is a major test. He stands to gain almost nothing by blocking it, it is entirely under his regulatory authority to recognize and protect from the environmental harm,

I'll probably hate the weather. And the people. But I don't want to have to have plastic pads and hoses put in my eye to combat glaucoma which IS robbing my vision bit by bit. Doctors are so nonchalant about it "Oh, it isn't that bad."

Oh, yeah? Do you have one in your eye? How about both of them? Are you going blind without the benefit of a plant you can grow for essentially free? Oh, yeah, big pharmaceutical will miss my 200 plus dollars a month for the rest of my freaking life. Times that by several million people with glaucoma and you can kind of see why they're not exactly lining up to say "sure, take our money away."

Surpheon:you sound like a partisan asshole by your oh-so-clever implication that Obama is somehow responsible for the federal drug laws, or has the omniscient power to completely ignore all those he sees fit.

Politicians aren't responsible for promising to do one thing, then actively doing the exact opposite?

"relentless in pursuing corporate criminals"

Apparently this is some strange definition where relentless means "won't even prosecute".

Amos Quito:I was just about to link to that same Rolling Stone article.

That summary leaves out a couple of other things they have been doing lately.

We had the recent thread on the Obama administration digging up an obscure law meant for violent illegal drug cartels that they are now using to deny legal dispensaries the right to deduct any normal business expense. (payroll, rent, utilities, insurance, etc.)

They have also been threatening media outlets who run advertisements for these legal businesses.

hermitage_deux:That's 6 prison beds that don' t need to be funded, and 6 public defenders that don't have new cases, and 6 trials that won't require juries.... they should really keep track of the $avings.

Yup. This is the same city that picked up the 75 worst chronic drunks, responsible for literally hundreds of emergency room visits each, and... gave them a free apartment. All together in the same place. No religious sermons, and - the real innovation - they are allowed to drink themselves to a stupor in their rooms. Get pass the Righties "OMG MORAL HAZARD!!1!!1" and it has saved millions of dollars net. And we're talking serious drunks here - shiat filled pants passed out in a puddle of their own vomit in a gutter 7 days a week, not just Fridays. If you're sober long enough to log into Fark, you're not even close to qualifying. Even with a patrol car parked outside 24/7 to keep the neighbors happy and an ambulance rolling through a few times a day to pick up the most comatose, just a huge commonsense way to save money when dealing with slow-suicides-by-alcohol. Oddly, they are actually showing signs of having a better recovery rate than the traditional "swear off alcohol to come in" housing programs.

Seattle was my home town for a long time. They are an argumentative bunch of second guessers with a fetish for new stadiums (the Kingdome was the best stadium of all time - OF ALL TIME - damnit all) but they do a lot right.

quietwalker:It's gonna be amusing when the anti-tobacco trend washing over the country, resulting in banning smoking in public areas, bars, restaurants, etc, starts butting head with the nascent legal pot directives.

There isn't much conflict. Banning pot smoking just like tobacco smoking makes perfect sense considering the primary reason smoking bans are popular is because cigarettes smell like shiat. Secondary smoke health hazards blah blah blah - seriously, if you're not a smoker or living with one those things smell like ass. And in the extreme case where there is a secondary smoke health hazard (servers in very smoky bars getting a lungful for 8 hours a day), it applies double to pot (stoned waiters and waitresses are likely to be a bit less productive than non-stoned). Similar to pot to most people, so it's natural and logical that they'll be treated the same.